San Jose, California, Northern California's largest city, is in the heart of the Silicon Valley and is located 45 minutes south of San Francisco by car. With over 100 parks, San Jose is the place to get outside and enjoy nature .The average daily temperature in December is in the 60s, but December is also part of the rainy season, so you might want to plan a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities.
Enjoy the outdoors
San Jose's parks include biking and hiking trails and the Emma Prusch Memorial Park where you can learn about healthy eating at a community farm. For more adventure, Outback Adventures offers a variety of activities. Choose from rock climbing, backpacking and mountaineering trips, or rent equipment. If you prefer water-based adventures, kayaking and paddle-boarding equipment is available. There is also training in Adventure Racing, a multisport combination of kayaking, rappelling, navigation, ascending ropes and traverses.
Fun on Ice
Even though it is not particularly cold in San Jose, December is the time when people start thinking about ice skating. Sharks Ice at San Jose offers public skating hours at its indoor rink, plus figure skating clinics, and private and group skating and hockey lessons. A training room facility gives hockey players a place to increase strength and endurance off the ice.
Interactive Exploration
The family friendly Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose encourages healthy eating at the Our Pizza, Please exhibit. Kids create healthy pizzas, using different colored fruits and vegetables. Families learn that they should "eat a rainbow every day." A farmer's market truck holds the produce, so families are reminded to shop at farmer's markets. And accompanying take-home literature offers ways for parents to "sneak" more vegetables into family meals.
Bike Riding
Indulge Tour de France fantasies at the Hellyer Park Velodrome. The year round Velodrome has a Saturday morning beginner session where anyone who can ride a bicycle and is physically fit can learn the basics of track riding. There are also weekly racing sessions. You don't have to bring a track bike; they are available to rent. Hellyer Park also has the wooded Coyote Creek Trail for biking. A monthly San Jose Bike Party explores different neighborhoods and streets of San Jose
Golf
The Silicon Valley has over two dozen golf courses, most open to the public. Some country clubs in San Jose let even non-members play. The San Jose Municipal Golf Course has lessons, including Junior Golf Classes for ages 5 to 16, and Saturday Junior Golf Clinics for ages 4 to 17. The driving range has heaters if you want to practice your swing on a cold day.
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